The Battle For Circus Americano
by Padster96
Summary: The circus have quite the offer for a performance in a small town in the Netherlands, however the contractors are quite the unexpected, unwanted surprise. The penguins must train up the circus for a hardy, gritty battle if there's any hope of overcoming their opponents.
1. A Slight Delay

**The Battle For Circus Americano**

**A Slight Delay**

A long, painted circus train puffed along, surrounded by thick green forest as far as Alex the lion could see. The sea of trees flowed seemingly beyond the sunset and into an eternity of orange; however this unending image did not dishearten Alex or his friend Marty. They both sat in an exposed car, feeling the fresh wind pass through their manes. Their legs swayed a few inches above the tracks and they chatted about the coming show.

"When d'ya think we'll get there?" Alex asked while stretching his muscly arms. "We've been on this train so long I haven't had a good wash of my mane for nearly three days."

Marty rolled his eyes and smirked. "I know, I can smell you!" he joked, receiving a light punch as Alex laughed with him. "That Skipper dude said we'd be stopping in the morning, apparently we coming up to a lake or something. Then you can stop smelling like fish gut stew!"

"Oh so that's how it is!" Alex jumped up and tackled Marty to the ground, attempting to hold the zebra's hooves behind his back and wait for submission. Marty struggled for a while as Alex laughed, but somehow Marty broke loose and stood opposite his friend, ready for a wrestle.

"You picked the wrong circus zebra!" And with that Marty charged forward and interlocked with his tough lion friend in a struggle to take one another down. In the end Marty used dirty tactics by acting like Gia was watching Alex's childlike behaviour, and when Alex turned to see Marty simply tripped him up sat on top of him, victorious.

"You better tap out!" Marty said with his arms crossed, ignoring Alex's failed attempts as reasoning. "I can't hear ya buddy, and I ain't hearing no taps!"

A large sigh emerged from the defeated lion, lifting Marty higher off the floor. Three hard taps was all it took for him to jump off and help his friend up.

"Ha ha." Alex said sarcastically, mimicking the laughs aimed at him. "Anyway, it's dark and I'd better hit the hay." He took Marty in a gentle headlock and scuffled up his black mane. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Sure thing bud!" Just before Alex left the car he heard an echo from the opposite end "Don't fight like such a lioness next time!" followed by chuckles of laughter.

Alex grinned and found his carriage, filled with a fresh bed of straw. He lied down and rested his slightly bruised body, falling into a calm, dreamless sleep as the moon elevated into its rightful place in the pitch sky.

* * *

An ear piercing screech of the train's breaks woke Alex from his sleep. At first he was disorientated, and found the immediate stop had forced his bed to slide towards the wall behind him. Although once Marty found him he managed to get up and investigate. The two met up with Gloria, Melman, Stefano and the four penguins at the head of the train. The squad of black and white seemed to be inspecting a nearby town, their destination; however they gave the impression like something was wrong.

A sudden burst of "What's going on?" from various animals overwhelmed the penguin's leader, Skipper, as he awaited the rest of the circus crew.

The sun had only just risen and the cold morning chill still swept over. There wasn't a cloud in the sky above the forests of the Netherlands, and birds flew gracefully singing their breakfast whistles.

"Calm down, calm down, the situation's under control." Skipper tried to voice, however he was drowned out by the others' panicky shouts. "Will you please SHUT UP?!"

Alex and his friends all quieted down and listened intently to Skipper, eager to learn the reason for their journey's stop.

Skipper stepped forward with his flippers behind his back. "Well there's good news and there's bad news. Which first?"

"Let's get rid of the bad news first." Alex proposed with a groan.

"The bad news is the place we're heading to is a trap, an ambush, a bye-bye-circus-party."

"The good news?"

"We're here."

Half the circus face palmed, and then worry overcame them. Melman asked what the ambush was.

Skipper took a look at the town, then answered "You remember when we bought the circus, and how it was a disaster waiting to happen?" Everybody nodded in unison. "Well the people we bought it off want it back, and they ain't asking nicely. Luckily Private here regarded the town as unusual, a sort of ghost town for somewhere celebrating a summer fair. After a closer look we saw a couple of animal control goons geared up with tranquilliser dart shooters."

"That crazy French lady!" Marty exclaimed in horror.

"Not quite my melodramatic, monochromatic friend. These guys are Danes, and they no-doubt came looking for me and my men. They're well connected and I have some history with the Danes, but they most likely learned of Dubois's failed efforts and came to finish the job." He finished with a hard stomp and narrowed eyes.

Gloria took three heavy steps forward and said "So what're we gonna do about this mess?"

"Simple. We send in a ground team to recon the area, then once we get an accurate number of the enemy we'll strike, quick and silent. Then the train can proceed without danger. Kowalski, status report."

Kowalski seemed to appear from thin air before he ran through his notes. "We've got two patrolling the northward train tracks, and two guarding the tracks leading to our position. A simple flanking manoeuvre should do the trick. On success we should have four men taken down and no alarms raised. 99.9% success rate."

"Those are some fine odds lieutenant. Operation Sock Four is a go! Move out."

And with that the four penguins slid away into the cover of the trees on their mission. However little was known to anyone about what lied ahead. The gang read each other's minds and they didn't like it one bit. Surely and ambush would be better thought out, better concealed? Perhaps the penguins had become too complacent or too confident? Alex felt like it was up to him to reassure the others and relieve the tension.

He took up Skippers position and hushed his friends. "Come on guys, the penguins will sort everything out. They're little black and white masterminds. We've never seen them fail a mission." He scratched his head and let out a nervous laugh. "_Too badly_" he added slyly. "Right Marty? Melman? Gloria?"

His response was a mixture of fake smiles and nervous agreements.

"What if they are-a wrong and we are-a doomed Alice!" Added the short sea lion, Stefano. "I don't want to be-a captured or-a sea lion-napped!"

"Alright, alright everybody" Marty said "no-one's getting sea lion-napped. We all just gotta sit down and wait this out. Right? Come on Stefano, I'm reckoning we can crack-a-lack on with practising some new moves?" Stefano's sad puppy like eyes regained their posture as he grew excited over the prospect of new moves to learn. He waddled away happily and much more relaxed.

Alex watched the group detach as he leant against the cold metal of the train and breathed out a heavy breathe. Gia took a seat beside him and nothing was said until Alex broke the awkward silence.

"How you feeling?" he asked, looking into her entrancing eyes.

Gia smiled. "Good, I just hope we get this train moving soon." She just about seemed done but she suddenly jumped out with a few more words. "-Alex I," she stared at her feet and then to the sky "well, nevermind."

"What? You can tell me anything."

"I don't think it's the right time anyway, with the-… What was that?" her ears pricked upwards and she shot up onto her feet. Alex on the other hand stumbled up, clambering for something to hold onto.

A loud shout was heard from the town, barely comprehensible but Alex could tell it was one of the penguins. The echo grew faint but he could just pick out two words. His face and stomach dropped as he turned to Gia and mouthed the unfortunate phrase: Man Down.

* * *

**I felt like coming back to doing some stories and after just seeing the third Madagascar I thought why not? On a side note if enough people enjoy this story I wouldn't mind it if someone suggested a few proper English names, call them oc's if you will (I need to name three of the six dancing dogs ;)) Anyway, enjoy!**


	2. A Simple Plan

**A Simple Plan**

One large puff of grey smoke burst from in front a tall, stationary wooden mill beside the steel tracks. It didn't look natural, and the placement allowed for effective cover for anyone retreating back up to the train as it shrouded the open ground beyond the narrow treeline. That's when Alex knew he had heard the right two words. The lion raced down towards the small silhouettes of penguins rushing through the thick smoke and found one of them, the smallest, Private, had been hit with a sleep dart and was being carried by Skipper and Kowalski on a stretcher.

"Rico, covering fire!" Skipper ordered as he waddled as fast as he could.

Rico somehow choked up a pellet gun and laid down covering fire, firing small pieces of round plastic and slowly following his comrades. One dart landed at Rico's feet however he looked at it without care, kicking it away and spraying into the cloud of smoke. It was only then that Alex realised that more darts were whizzing past his head from the smog, so he ducked down and fell on all fours, narrowly avoiding a few missiles which clipped his dirty mane.

Alex saw that the penguins were moving too slow, so he offered an alternative. "Give him to me, quick!" he yelled to Skipper, knowing he could get Private to cover with pace.

Skipper didn't like the idea very much but after looking around at his team he knew it was their best shot at getting them away safely. "Affirmative. Kowalski!" The tall penguin literally threw Private into the hands of Alex without warning and quickly folded up the green stretcher. Before Alex could retreat to safety he added with cheek "Oh and don't let the others see him. We wouldn't want your hippie friends going crazy now would we?" Alex simply nodded.

He found the best way to carry the young penguin was to place him in his mouth, obviously no teeth making contact. He then ran swiftly back to the train in a serpentine fashion and laid Private down in the locomotive, near the hot fire in the steam powered for warmth, though not really knowing whether it would benefit such an animal.

Skipper and his men arrived soon after, but all the while Alex had to try and stall his friends in case they started to worry, which inevitably, they did.

"Alex," Gloria said, losing patience "you know that if you're lying I'll just squeeze it outta you. Now what's wrong?"

Alex began backing away until the train blocked any more movement, glancing at every pair of suspecting eyes, then he felt he finally had to speak up. "Listen guys, I'd rather wait until Skipper gets here but-"

"But what?" Said a familiar voice from behind.

Alex turned to see Skipper standing with his arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. He let out a sigh of relief and let the penguin speak.

"The bad news is that the Operation Sock Four was a failure." Skipper announced in his usual tone.

One of the Dancing Dogs shouted "Well what's the good news then?"

"There isn't any. I don't see any way of getting through that forsaken village without taking casualties. Damn Danes…"

Everybody's faces dropped and one by one they slid away hopelessly, wondering what on earth they would do. They were stranded in the middle of a forest with nothing but a hostile village ready to attack. Skipper began to think why they didn't question the offer in the first place, after all a circus in the middle of no-where was a bit suspicious. Maybe excitement overthrew every other feeling? It didn't matter anyway, they were here and they needed to act.

Suddenly Alex's faces lit up with an idea. "Surely we can help? Teach us your military uh… stuff!"

"First off," Skipper said with annoyance "We ain't some lollygagging bunch of frontline reindeer, we're _Special Forces_. That means in and out before anyone sees anything. It takes years of training, yet you think we can teach you in a matter of hours? No. Forget it hippies."

"Ok, ok, _Special Forces._" he said back apologetically "Well, can't you just shows us the basics? El simplo?"

It appeared Skipper, even though he kept a stern face, was considering the option. An assault on the town was a challenge, one of the likes his squad had never seen before and he loved that thought. But it also meant that they needed help, since help was probably the only way forward.

"Fine. I want everybody lined up here at 0800. If they're not here in half an hour then they will be court marshalled. Understood?

Alex kept his composure in the presence of his newly found commander and answered "Sure, we'll be here." He was just about to run off when Skipper grabbed a hold of his tail and cleared his throat.

"We'll be here _sir_."

"Oh, ok, sorry… sir." He said, giving a shoddy salute. Skipper shook his head as he watched Alex proceed to find his friends, and wondered just what he had gotten his team into.

* * *

Alex knew that not every member of the circus could take part. The elephants had no chance, after all how could they use any sort of weapon? The Andalusian Triplets were useless because, quite frankly, they wouldn't even dare thinking about training in the military. And then there was King Julian. Just no. He would probably end up taking command and lead the whole operation astray. He could stay with his new found love for all Alex cared.

The lion hurried over to find his zebra friend, knowing Marty was better at persuading than him, a gift used for both good and bad. But then, might Marty need persuading too? Hopefully not, Alex thought, because that would make things a whole lot harder. After heading down to the end of the train he found Marty with open arms trying to sway Stefano to vault off the top of a train car. The sea lion on the other hand was shaking with fear.

"Come on man, you can do this!" Marty said in an effort to make Stefano dive off the car. "Trust me" he with puppy eyes.

Stefano rubbed his fins together and mumbled some Italian under his breath, then with a swift pounce he was falling through the air and into Marty's arms. "See? Safe and sound."

"I'm glad you-a caught me but er…" Stefano wiggled his way out of Marty's arms "what-a trick would require us landing a-head first into a cannon?" The sea lion asked with a polite smile.

"None, I just wanted to see if you'd do it." He replied with a wink. "And you did! See! No trust issues!"

"Ah…" Stefano gazed to his left, unimpressed with Marty's silly 'test', and found Alex silently watching them both. "Oh-a high Alice. How are-a you?"

"Good," he replied "but I got something important to tell you". He signalled for them to come closer, and once they had huddled down he explained his and Skipper's plan. "Skipper said he needed our help to beat back those control freaks in town. We'll need as many able hands as possible though, so what d'ya say to some good old fashioned recruiting?"

Marty's inner fire kindled at what he heard "So, so we're gonna learn some super cool Kung Fu stuff?!" he said nearly bouncing with hysteria.

Alex wasn't really sure what the best answer was to Marty's question. He placed on arm on the car and crossed over his legs. "We're just gonna train for a while, you know build up a bit of muscle, impress a few girls, then take care of trouble."

"I'm in." Marty said without a second though. Alex turned to Stefano, who seemed to be deep in thought. A minute or so passed before Stefano gave his answer, and it was quite the unexpected one.

"If it's-a for the good of the circus-a then I'm-a in!" He declared with a cheer. That took a lot less reasoning.

"Excellent. Let's see now," Alex tapped his head and wrote an imaginary list of friends that would be useful "Stefano see if you can convince Gia and Vitaly to join up, Marty you try and convince Melman and Gloria and I'll get the Dancing Dogs on my side."

Marty stomped is hoof "Why can't I convince the Dancing Dogs?"

Alex knew he was just been the same old difficult zebra, so he agreed. "Fine, I'll convince Gloria and Melman. We have to meet the penguins in about twenty minutes so hurry! Let's go!"

The three split off in different directions in search of their future brothers in arms. Alex found Melman's head rising above the wild trees admitting the vast green sea, while Gloria was beside him, rather annoyed that she couldn't see. The sun was high now and its light bounced off the leaves like moonlight on sand, and a magnificent green glow radiated as far as the eyes could see.

As Alex explained his plan Melman gradually grew cautious of this so called training. He despised the idea of a fight in the first place, nevermind preparing for one. Gloria on the other hand loved the prospect of sticking it to those animal control freaks, so she was very enthusiastic indeed.

"Let's do it! Let's show them how this hippo takes care of business!" Gloria hailed with a fist pump.

Although Melman was not so easily satisfied. He brought his head down to speak to Alex, sending a hail of leaves, many of which got caught in the lion's mane. "How do you expect the penguins to teach us, I mean won't it put us all in more danger? What if someone get hurt while training?"

"Melman, you've got to let go of all this doubt. Come on you could be useful as a lookout or a, er…" He tried to think of a better word than doctor, one more fitting for the coming work, "Medic!"

"Medic?" Melman liked that. Stay out of the fight yet still help. Alex realized that his friend would presumably end up as a lookout, but that could be revealed later. All that mattered now was getting a good amount of people. "Yeah! I could do that!"

Alex took a position between his two friends and placed his arms around their shoulders, giving them a friendly hug. "Alright, let's get to it."

As they travelled to the meeting point Alex wondered how Stefano and Alex were faring. In retrospect Gia and Vitaly should join as fast as Stefano did, after all they possibly cared for the circus more than anyone here. He never doubted his best friends wither, well maybe Melman a little, but he soon proved his mettle. Now all that was left were the Dancing Dogs. They were a true test.

Once they arrived he saw Marty scanning the town for a specific building, or maybe he was thinking tactics? He gave the zebra a pat to get his attention.

"What'cha looking at?

"What are 'The Spoils Of War?'" He questioned innocently, not taking his eyes off the town.

Alex scratched his head, noticing the dirt falling from his mane. "Not sure buddy, you get the dogs onside?"

"Yeah it was easy, they were totally up for it!" he said proudly pointing to the circle of dogs having an argument over who knows what. He then looked down for a second, then back up to Alex and asked "Hey Al, you reckon they got some booze down in that town there?"

"What like beer and stuff? I dunno, maybe. Why?"

Marty chuckled to himself and glanced back at the dogs. "A little promise my friend."

At Eight O'clock the group lined up horizontally, all staring directly ahead. Alex saw Stefano with Gia and Vitaly and gave him a thumb up, even if they didn't look too excited. And then something crossed Alex's mind; he'd forgotten the monkeys, Mason and Phil! He tried to look around for them but Skipper had come too close for comfort for Alex to break formation.

Skipper had announced that the group would call him 'Sir' and that whenever Skipper walked by somebody he demanded they drop their heads for inspection, unless of course they were the dogs, because then he was the one who needed to crouch, and it was one thorough examination. Alex and Marty managed to stand beside one another, and it was their turn next. As Marty's head dropped Skipper picked up instantly on his chin.

"Private Stripes, did you shave this morning?" Skipper asked intently.

Marty liked that name, though rather than show it he simply looked ahead and answered "I don't need to shave; I'm a zebra, sir."

Skipper glared closely at Marty's chin and lifted it up with a cold flipper, letting the sun illuminate it. Marty winced in pain after he felt a quick pinch, and then saw Skipper holding a single black hair in his hand. "You were saying?"

When he deemed he had made his point Skipper moved on to Alex, who was a little too relaxed. "I'm so glad you guys are doing this, I mean it's gonna tur-"

"Shut your mouth Private Psycho. You will speak only when spoken to, capiche?"

Alex was hurt, but he didn't let it get to him. "Yes sir."

Skipper sniffed a few times and covered his nose. "You stink, take a bath." He said boldly. "Personal hygiene is a must, ladies and gentleman. Don't end up like our psycho lion friend here."

"But… but… we've been-" Alex tried to spurt out his excuse however Skipper was having none of it.

"No excuses private. If I hear one more word you'll be doing a hundred laps around the train!"

Marty and Alex caught a quick look at each other and their thoughts were clear: What have we got ourselves into?

* * *

**I'll probably be making the chapters a little bit longer each time, and the next one out may not be for a few days because of college work and the such :) ****I hope you enjoy!**


End file.
